People like Patricia Nell Warren

Patricia Nell Warren (June 15, 1936 – February 9, 2019), also known by her pen name Patricia Kilina, was an American novelist, poet, editor and journalist. Her second novel, The Front Runner (1974), was the first work of contemporary gay fiction to make the New York Times Best Seller list. Her third novel, The Fancy Dancer (1976), was the first bestseller to portray a gay priest and to explore gay life in a small town.

Patricia Nell Warren was born in Helena, Montana on June 15, 1936, and grew up in southwest Montana on the Grant–Kohrs Ranch near Deer Lodge. Her parents, Con and Nell Warren, were cattle ranchers; Warren had one brother, Conrad. She began writing at age ten and got her first literary recognition at eighteen, winning the Atlantic Monthly College Fiction Contest with a short story.